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Most of us of a certain age will have known or heard of someone born when wool and grain was carried from farm to railhead, or to port, on bullock drays. We’ve probably all seen vintage photos in country pubs proudly displaying magnificent teams of bullocks heaving burgeoning wool bales on a well-worn dray through boggy black soils on a nearby dirt road. In the century-plus since, we’ve been ...
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America’s founders thought that the freedom of the press was so important that they enshrined it in the republic’s constitution. In Australia, we also make much ado about press freedom as an essential underpinning of democracy – but what happens when there is no press? That’s what we’re seeing in rural and regional Australia, as the lights of small newspapers blink out one by one. The ...
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If nothing else, COVID-19 has reinforced the immense value of digital capability. Many businesses – including mine – were able to switch almost seamlessly from physical offices to online meetings and communication. My business has been operating as a ‘remote’ business model for 25 years, but as urban Australian’s catch up, I think that we as a nation have had time to adjust to working from ...
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If we take anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it might be that nothing worthwhile happens without collaboration and its inseparable twin, compromise. There has been a growing tendency to sideline these sensible approaches to problem-solving in Australia's public debates, and to instead win battles through political strength and favour. Human history repeatedly shows where this tactic takes ...
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It’s been 6 weeks since COVID-19 started to change the business landscape. Most organisations successfully communicated the impact of those changes to their customers, and the lucky ones are getting on with the “new” business-as-usual. But the dialogue shouldn’t stop there. As humans we communicate to inform, educate, reassure and maintain relationships. In business we do all of the same ...
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Image credit - https://www.business2community.com/ In 2004, the phrase "Life comes at you fast" was a clever tagline for US insurance company Nationwide. In 2020, it has become a meme for our times. Few of us are comfortable with uncertainty, but our certainties are built on human expectations that things will track a certain way. The real world, as the past month has shown, deals in ...
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It is now certain that the global economy will be completely changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The nature of those changes are wholly uncertain, except that there is likely to be extensive short-term damage to agricultural markets. Fortunately, food and fibre production are the most essential of essential services, and so agriculture will endure over the long term. But in what form? Hopefully, ...
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Importance of a compelling story makes journalism and PR closer than we think The worlds of journalism and public relations are either close relations or worlds apart – depends on who you ask. Coming from one industry to another, I can say both statements are probably true, depending on whether you focus on the similarities, or the many differences. From journalist to public relations ...
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Image credit - AAP Image/Lukas Coch via REUTERS Rural and regional Australians are confronting significant social and economic challenges amid the ravages of a dramatically severe bushfire season, compounded by one of the worst-ever droughts. Understandably, these disasters have attracted relentless media attention, with constant up-close commentary of every iteration and angle. This ...
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Robbie Sefton says the success of prominent figures from the bush prove you can become anything you want, by working hard and backing your talents. JAN Logan’s success story is an inspiration to all Australians; not just those from the regions. Just like other accomplished entrepreneurs, an abundance of self-motivation, passion and creativity underscored Jan’s risk-taking journey, ...
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Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott says we must unleash the potential of our people and places across the whole of the country. Image credit - The Land There is a lot of well-documented frustration in regional Australia, where some regions feel they have been bypassed in the nation’s prosperity push. The statistics don’t look all that encouraging, either: of the ...
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ONE thing I’ve learned over the years, in working with and meeting regional Australians from all corners of our great country on different projects and initiatives, is this. If you want a miracle, be the miracle. Unfortunately, these days – especially in a world dominated by the internet and social media, where keyboard warriors vent their fickle, fleeting thoughts 1000-Tweets a minute – it ...
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THIS has been another challenging year for the Australian agricultural sector with our resilience tested on multiple levels. But as always, the tough times have also seen many good people doing good things to exhibit the fierce fighting spirit and practical problem-solving prowess that we all know exists in regional Australia. Undoubtedly, drought is the biggest issue that’s confronted ...
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To plan or not to plan, that is the question. In recent weeks I’ve been travelling through some of the driest regions of New South Wales and Queensland speaking to farmers about the various ways they’re coping with this terrible drought. These forums have included presentations from different people offering sound information and valuable, practical advice in key services such as farm ...
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The Prime Minister has announced his drought relief initiative – see what Robbie Sefton has to say on ABC Radio – The World Today (Monday 4 November) and ABC Radio AM (Thursday 7 November). ABC AM today, Thursday 7th November at 8am Link to story - https://www.abc.net.au/radio/sydney/programs/am/govt-to-offer-super-cheap-loans-to-drought-affected-farmers/11680254 The World Today ...
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ABA CEO Anna Bligh (pictured with Bendigo Mayor Margaret O'Rourke with ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott) summarised agriculture's challenge at the NFF conference when she said, "Trust comes in like a turtle and leaves like galloping horses". Credit - The Land STORIES on page three and five of the Daily Telegraph earlier this month provide another sharp reminder of not only the agricultural sector’s many ...
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Our tiers of government have helped give Australians some of the world’s best living standards. But sometimes the arbitrary boundaries we draw to define government areas get in the way of common sense. Exhibit A: the Murray-Darling Basin. Siloed thinking is also proving unhelpful as we grapple with where to put all our people. An Infrastructure Australia report recently warned that if ...
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Making people feel good about themselves has always been a safe bet for activists, politicians and investors. Right now, this time-proven principle is behind the flow of a whole lot of exploratory capital into developing meat-protein alternatives. This money is betting that in the future, a lot of people will believe that avoiding meat that was once part of a living animal is a virtuous act ...
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Image Credit - The Land - The Thallon silos following their launch in 2017 While this drought is all pervasive and impacting many livelihoods, it has also brought out the exceptional mix of strength, independence and generosity that makes rural Australia so resilient. I recently visited seven small communities in NSW and Queensland to run workshops, and was uplifted by what I saw and the ...
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Image credit - The Land Understanding the social and economic conditions impacting each and every Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) community is as vital as the water itself. For without such understanding, we simply will not have strong, thriving communities. That’s why it is essential voices are heard, and communities have the knowledge and tools to shape their own destinies. The Independent ...
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Farming in Australia is very different to many other countries around the world, particularly war-torn regions from where many migrants originate. Image credit - The Land Migrants moving to the bush should be a classic case of need-meets-opportunity: the bush needs more people, and migrants need work and community. The reality is more complicated, as reality always is. Some migrant groups are an ...
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Image Credit - The Land Robbie Sefton says the community can play a part in Australia's biosecurity battle by being aware of purchases during an overseas holiday that could carry hidden risks Australia is the lucky country in so many ways – not least of which is the island status that has protected us from many of the pests and diseases that could spell economic disaster should they ever reach ...
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Image Credit - The Land The Indonesia-Australia trade agreement signed in March was another important deal for Australian agriculture, and follows a series of similar agreements the current government has forged with China, Japan and Korea. Australian agriculture produces far more than our domestic market can consume, and often needs a greater return on its produce than the domestic market ...
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Image credit - The Land No matter whether you are conservative or progressive, I think we all have a sense that our world is changing too fast for comfort. It’s not just the climate, although the implications of a changing climate is of growing concern to Australians. All our systems - political, legal, economic, social - are being strained by growing populations, new technologies, and ...
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Image Credit : The Land Australia has more land per person than almost any other country, yet about 90% of its population choose to live in just 0.2% of that space — mostly our coastal cities. We are nearly as urbanised as Japan (94%) and more urbanised than the United States (82%) and United Kingdom (83%). We in the bush would do well to remember how minor is our minority in the nation’s ...
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Of all the various ways that humanity has devised for splitting itself into tribes, gender tribes are surely the most pointless. Men and women are undoubtedly capable of widely differing viewpoints, and are perfectly capable of exasperating each other, but we are literally nothing without each other. That's why it's been wonderfully encouraging to watch the rise of women in agriculture over the ...
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Agriculture’s rapidly growing efficiency has been challenging for many of the regional centres that were built around a large agricultural workforce. Truckloads of possibilities for reversing the stagnation in the economies of many rural townships have been discussed over the decades, but the only sure recipes for growth seem to be either a large regional centre with the critical mass for ...
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Imagine if Australia had stayed as it was in 1861, when nearly half the population could not read. We are today (almost) universally literate, thanks to the compulsory schooling introduced in the 1870s to overcome Australia’s literacy problems. But we now need more than the ability to read if we want to access education, government and financial services, and information in general. All these ...
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